A former Santa Rosa police officer who used "incredibly detailed planning and surveillance" in four armored car robberies received the maximum sentence Tuesday for his crimes.
Robert "Steve" Starling, 35, was sentenced in a Santa Rosa courtroom to 30 years, four months for taking more than $500,000 in robberies committed in Santa Rosa, Sebastopol and Novato.
With credit for good behavior and time already served, Starling will spend more than 24 years in state prison, said Assistant District Attorney Diana Gomez.
A former Army paratrooper who also worked briefly as a Brinks company driver, Starling's crime strategy included disguises and false calls to 911 dispatchers to divert police during robbery attempts.
In March 2009 his accomplice, Andrew Esslinger, shut down Rancho Cotate High in Rohnert Park and caused considerable fear among parents after he falsely reported a gunman on campus. That ruse occurred during a planned holdup in that city that Starling aborted at the last moment because the armored car "was out of position," according to a pre-sentencing report by Sonoma County probation officials.
Starling, who also worked a few years for Sonoma State University police, expressed remorse Tuesday for his role in robbing both Brinks and Loomis armored cars. He also apologized to two Brinks employees who earlier spoke in court.
Standing stiff in blue jail garb with his arms behind his back, Starling told Judge Arthur Wick, "I wanted to say I'm ashamed of my actions for the past two-and-a-half years."
But his words did nothing to sway the judge. Wick said the prisoner's trial testimony was "incredulous," possibly a reference to Starling's insistence that he hadn't used a real gun. Using a firearm added years to his prison sentence.
Wick also recalled the words of a Santa Rosa police detective that he had "never met a person more manipulative and narcissistic" than Starling.
Deputy District Attorney Marianna Green said Starling deserved the maximum sentence because he had used his training from the military, law enforcement and Brinks to "terrorize a community," endangering both armored car guards and bank customers.
"Basically the Brinks company had a terrorist among them," Green said.
Starling's crimes were notable for "detailed planning and surveillance," according to the probation report. His approach "was a swift and highly tactical attack conducted by a man with years of military and law enforcement experience, for which few would be adequately prepared to handle.
"The sophistication of Starling's operation is unique but not unexpected given his training," the report stated, "and shows a level of betrayal to his former brethren that is, in a word, sickening."
Starling, who worked about three years for Santa Rosa police, pulled off his first robbery in September 2007 in a shopping center parking lot near the Exchange Bank at Stony Point and Occidental roads. He made off with $180,000 from a Loomis armored car, according to the probation report.
He next robbed a Brinks transport outside the Montgomery Village Bank of America in April 2008. Disguised as a landscape worker with a Weedwhacker, Starling couldn't deal with the weight of all the cash he had stolen. He ended up leaving behind more than $200,000 and taking away $240,000, according to the probation report.
Police noted that the robber always picked armored cars on their morning rounds delivering cash to banks. Starling gave added insight. He told probation officers he robbed only those transports involving both coins and cash on a cart so the guard would have both hands occupied and would be slower to reach for a firearm.
After the botched Rohnert Park robbery, Starling held up a Brinks armored car in Novato, only to discover the guard's money bag was empty. He next robbed a Brink's transport of $97,000 in Sebastopol.
However, by then police had traced a cell phone call from Esslinger to Novato police, a false report of a kidnapping on the other side of town from that holdup. Esslinger agreed to help police and secretly recorded conversations with Starling.
The two were arrested last August and Esslinger testified against Starling as part of a deal with prosecutors in exchange for a reduced, six-year prison sentence.
While Starling said he used $70,000 in stolen cash to pay personal debts and rent a house, much of the money was spent at casinos, Reno "strip joints" and trips to Lake Tahoe, Las Vegas and Boston. He also began a marijuana growing operation.
A jury last month convicted him on 10 different charges, including conspiracy in an unsuccessful plan at an armored car robbery in Rohnert Park. Jurors rejected Starling's testimony that he didn't use a real handgun.
On Tuesday the two Brinks employees condemned Starling's actions. Guard Greg Klemme said the recollection of Starling pointing a gun at his colleagues and himself "makes my blood boil."
And Brinks' Petaluma branch manager Debbie Christian said that Starling "exploited what you learned" during his three-month stint as a Brinks driver.
UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: